


mermaid song

by cxlesstial



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Donatello, Capritello, F/M, Good Older Sibling Leonardo (TMNT), M/M, Protective Leonardo (TMNT), because i am OBSESSED, bisexual casey jones, eventual capritello, human april and casey, i feel like i needed to say that again i love capritello, ill tag later god this is always the worst part, is that not a tag wtf, like i avoid making new fics just because of the fucking tags LMAOOO, this idea came to me...at 4am, tmnt but the bros are MERMAIDS, yeah i know i was shocked too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:02:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26718709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cxlesstial/pseuds/cxlesstial
Summary: They reach the surface after another minute of quiet swimming, pausing right underneath. Leo knows what the Sun is, has felt the rays on his brown complexion, but it’s never been...so close before. His body has never been fully bathed in the setting Sun like this, turning his and his brother’s skin a golden caramel, making Leo feel so warm even though the water was always so cold. He reaches up, hesitantly, pushing his hand through the water and to the surface, to where his hand met nothing but -But air. He’s actually touching nothing but air. Looking around at his brothers with wide, terrified eyes, Leo swims the last few inches upwards and finally breaks his head through the surface of the ocean.
Relationships: Casey Jones/April O'Neil (TMNT), Donatello/April O'Neil (TMNT), Donatello/Casey Jones (TMNT), Donatello/Casey Jones/April O'Neil (TMNT)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	1. we have literally never fought a sea serpent but okay keep pretending raph

“Okay, fine. I’ll bite. The ugliest human male name is _definitely_ Bob.” 

“Bob? No, it’s Bill! Who the fuck would name their kid Bill? They’d have to have a few screws loose, don’t you think?”

“You guys, _please_ ,” Leo sighs, looking back at his younger brothers, concentrating on holding an annoyed expression on his face even though he privately agreed, Bill _was_ an ugly name. “We really shouldn’t be this close to the surface, and if you keep talking so loudly we’re gonna get -

“Descaled and maimed, yeah?” Raph rolls his eyes, crossing his scarred, dark brown arms as he glares upwards at Leo, clearly annoyed with being interrupted. “Shove a crab in it, Leo. If we were gonna get caught we’re gonna get caught because of our fuckin’ _tails,_ not our voices. Mikey’s is bright _orange_ , for God’s sake. I’m sure _my_ red tail is like a beacon for miles -

“Alright already, I get it!” Leo whips his head to glare at the second oldest, dreads sailing through the water as he considered twenty different ways to shut him up. On the top was currently strangling, but...well, not in front of Mikey. “Maybe we should play the quiet game while we wait for Don. For my sake.” 

“What’s taking Dee so long?” Mikey complains noisily as he does a flip, then two, then three, and Leo looks away because he’s getting dizzy. Mikey’s curly mop of hair was such a problem to control and you'd get lost in it if you stared long enough. “We said we’d go up, like, _hours_ ago!”

“Mikey, we’ve been over this at least ten times!” Leo pinches the bridge of his nose, annoyed. For fuck's _sake_ why couldn't they just listen? “A hippocampus - that’s the animal with the head of a horse and the hindquarters of a snake or fish, haven’t you been listening to _anything_ Dad’s taught us - was caught under some fishing net from one of those boats! Donnie and Rockwell are freeing it right now.”

“Pfft, you mean they’re hopefully freeing it,” Raph snorts, the hint of a smile suddenly playing across his lips. “If Donnie doesn’t kill Rockwell first. He hates the guy.”

“Are you surprised? Rockwell acts so entitled every time we meet up with Slash’s group, I doubt he even remembers we saved him from that one sea serpent - 

“Wait...you guys fought a _sea serpent?_ ” Mikey stops his flipping, training his wide baby blue irises on his older brothers, looking offended. “Without me?”

“Mikey, you were literally there. Did you hit your head again?” Raph rolls his eyes, lunging towards his brother and poking him in his bare stomach. Mikey giggles, twisting away. 

“I remember _seeing_ a sea serpent! It was a hundred feet long and as thick as one of those human thingies! The ones that carry a lot of people...oh! A _bus_!” Mikey exclaimed, spreading his arms as if to demonstrate how huge it was. “We didn’t fight it, though? Raph was too _scared_ of getting eaten - no! Raph I’m _sorrryyyyy_ -”

Raph noogies Mikey’s scalp while Mikey squeals and Leo sighs loudly, hiding an exasperated smile. He’s so enraptured by his brothers he almost misses the flash of purple out of the corner of his eyes. Before he can react or even _turn_ his arm is being grabbed and twisted, and Leo's rush to escape sends him and his attacker sprawling through the water. Mikey and Raph separate immediately, teeth bared and alarm in their eyes as they ready for battle.

Leo twists, reaching for his weapons, but the laughing stops him from pulling his sword. “Donnie!” Leo groans, dropping the hand from his blade and glaring at his, up until now, missing brother. “You _scared_ me!” 

“Yeah, Leo, that’s the point,” Donnie smirks up at him, the violet scales on his tail glimmering in the orange glow from the sunset up above. He looked relatively unharmed, besides a few scratches across his chest and on his back. Leo sighs, already knowing that he'd have to force his brother to take care of himself and injuries later. “I’m getting better at sneaking up on you guys, huh?”

“Yeah, congrats,” Raph slaps his shoulder, lightly, affectionately. “We’ll be ninja mermaids next.”

“Finally _,_ you decided to show up!” Mikey exclaims before Don can reply, swimming circles around his older brother so quickly he looked like an orange blur. “How are you? How was Rockwell? Did you free the hippo thingy - 

“ _Hippocampus_ ,” Donnie corrects immediately, smiling fondly at his brother and his energy. “And yes, we freed it. Everything was fine, surprisingly. I didn’t kill Rockwell, if that’s what you’re implying. I would never.”

“ _Sureeeee_ ,” Mikey laughs, blowing bubbles at Donnie and slowing, looking around at his three brothers impatiently, spreading his arms excitedly. “Okay! Since we’re all here, _finally_ ,” (he glares at Donnie, who sticks his tongue out in retaliation) “can we go to the surface? Pretty please? Please, Leo? _Pleaseeeeee -_

“We need to go over some ground rules, first,” Leo explains very patiently, ignoring the collective groaning from his younger siblings. “Oh, come _on_ , stop complaining. This is to keep us safe.” Waiting until they settled down, ignoring the grumbling, he continued. “Okay, first of all, no humans. Whatsoever. We _cannot_ be seen. I’m serious, it could put all of us and our _entire kind_ in danger.” 

When his brothers nod, finally taking on a more serious expression, Leo claps his hands together. “Out of sight and out of mind, boys. Stick together, don’t touch anything human related _at all_ , especially if it’s shiny. Or sharp. Or -

“We get it,” Raph rolls his eyes, but the flickering of his vibrant red tail betrays his anxiety. He was as nervous as any of them. “Let’s just go. It can’t be worse than fighting a sea serpent.” 

“We never _fought_ a sea serpent, Raph. We waited until it was distracted to free Rockwell, remember? That thing would have swallowed you like you were a shrimp.” Donnie huffs. Mikey flashes Raph a smirk and Raph glares, holding his middle finger up. 

Leo sighs at their antics and finally turns away, staring up at the surface. This has been the closest he's _ever_ been. Steeling his nerves, he starts upwards, knowing that if he didn't do it _now_ he was never going too. He can hear his brothers on his tail, suddenly quiet, and his stomach clenches painfully. Was he making a mistake? Splinter always told them that the surface was dangerous, that humans were unpredictable. Their dad would (not literally...at least Leo hopes not) kill the four of them for the stunt they were pulling. That’s if he found out, of course. Hopefully he didn't find out.

They reach the surface after another minute of quiet swimming, pausing right underneath. Leo knows what the Sun is, has felt the rays on his brown complexion, but it’s never been...so close before. His body has never been fully bathed in the setting Sun like this, turning his and his brother’s skin a golden caramel, making Leo feel so _warm_ even though the water was always so cold. He reaches up, hesitantly, pushing his hand through the water and to the surface, to where his hand met nothing but -

But air. He’s actually touching nothing but air. Looking around at his brothers with wide, terrified eyes, Leo swims the last few inches upwards and finally breaks his head through the surface of the ocean. 

Nothing at all, in his seventeen years of existence, has prepared him for this moment. Leo can feel his mouth fall open as he takes in the _bigness_ of it all. The sky, far above him, is alternating in colors from pink, and yellow, and orange, and the Sun itself is huge and dominating and beautiful and Leo can barely feel the freezing of the water anymore, not with that big ball of fire heating him up. The ocean seems to go on forever, too, miles and miles and Leo can't even see the end of it. Insane. This was insane.

His brothers break the waves, gasping and thunderstruck with how _different_ everything is compared to the open expanse of water they’re so used too. “Oh, my God.” Donnie says intelligently, and Leo’s inclined to agree. He’s been up here for twenty something seconds and he never wants to leave.

“There’s the town Dad was talking about!” Mikey points, and Leo follows his fingers. Indeed, there was a shore, _land_ , in the distance. Maybe half a mile away. Leo furrows his eyes, making out different little...compounds? What did Dad call them in his stories? 

“Buildings,” Raph guesses, barely hiding the nervousness in his voice, and Leo nods in recognition. 

“People built those, didn’t they?” Mikey's thoughtful, but tense. They've been told to be scared of humans their entire lives, that they were terrifying, war-loving monsters. “Do they live in them?” 

“Yeah, I think so. It protects them from the weather. Like...the rain. Or the snow.” Donnie explains as he scans the town, probably making a mental image. “Let’s go, I wanna get a closer look.”

“Be careful,” Leo reminds them, and ignores his family's collective eye rolling. Come on, _someone_ had to be responsible. Might as well be him. 

They approached the town maybe three minutes later, tails making their journey through the ocean lightweight and easy. They were forbidden to come and explore in this direction, always told to stay close to the kingdom and to their father - and of course they've snuck out and gone on adventures, but this is different. Visiting human cities or towns or even _coming_ to the surface was punishable by death a lot of the time, which Leo personally found absolutely _terrifying,_ but whatever. The Sun is almost completely gone by the time they slow, and Leo thinks that it looks like it’s descending into the ocean. The night sky, as it appears, is beautiful - black with little stars sprinkling it. Leo’s got so many questions - why are the stars so far away and so bright? Where does the Sun go during the night? 

Donnie’s frustrated; Leo’s genius brother drank in information greedily, but he knew next to nothing about the surface world. “I bet they know things,” Donnie says in an undertone to Leo as they blink up at the town, which was a lot bigger closer up. There were lights in the buildings, and Leo can’t really see more from his place in the water, but he sees black cobbled roads, with large black sticks with little tinier glowing lights in them, all leading away from the ocean and farther inland. “I wish I could _talk_ to them, Leo. I want to know what they’re saying, I want to _know_ things about the world. I’m so tired of being scared of humans.”

“I know, Don. I’m sorry,” Leo sighs sympathetically, putting an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Maybe we can figure some things out just by watching them, yeah? That’ll work for tonight.” 

Donnie leans into Leo’s touch. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Mikey and Raph are brave, examining one of the human paths that was built from the shore and runs out over the water. A boardwalk, Donnie calls it, made out of this thing called _wood_. That comes from these things called _trees_. Mystified, Leo goes out to join them, running his hands over the smooth material. “There’s barnacles on this pillar,” Mikey says from further down, poking one of the little sea animals and giggling quietly at how squishy it was. “This is fun! I like it here.” 

Leo grins. “Yeah, okay, it _is_ fun. Let’s just get away from the shore before someone -

“Leo. _Leo,_ oh my god.” Donnie cuts him off, shaking his brother's shoulders so quickly Leo can feel his brain rattle. Leo glares sideways at him, slightly annoyed with being interrupted, but Donnie’s not looking at him. He's more focused more at something on the beach shore. 

Leo follows Donnie’s gaze and his eyes must have gotten fifty times wider. A girl - a _human_ girl, stood on the beach. She had long, long red hair, pale white skin, and was dressed in a yellow shirt (a _blouse?_ ) and shorts, showcasing her long, toned legs. She held something in her hand, a little black box, and was talking into it impatiently. Leo can hear her plenty clear from where they're hidden under the boardwalk, and his brothers still, watching with shock. A human. There's an actual human. 

The human is _angry_. “I told you, Casey! I literally told you - 

“Isn’t she the most beautiful human girl you’ve ever seen?” Donnie murmurs from besides Leo, and his brothers all take their eyes off the girl to stare at him, utterly and completely stupefied. Donnie’s got literal hearts in his eyes. Oh, _no_. 

“Isn’t she the _only_ human girl you’ve ever seen?” Raph rolls his eyes, and Donnie flushes, embarrassed.

“My point still stands!” 

Leo's terrified that they're gonna get caught if they keep it up but they're cut off as human _men_ , five of them, appear on the beach behind the girl. She must have heard their steps, because she stops speaking abruptly and turns, the black box dropping quietly in the sand. Leo can hear what sounds like a male voice through it, sounding increasingly frustrated. “April? April, are you there? You better answer me right now, April O’Neil -

April? Was that her name? 

She glances from the box to the men, stepping backwards a few paces so her feet were now in the water. The men just follow, forcing her to step farther in to avoid them. Her eyes are wide, and so _scared_ , and Donnie tenses, and Mikey and Raph look from the spectacle towards Leo, waiting for the command to _move_ and do something. Leo held his position, watching with narrowed eyes and bated breath.

“You will come with us, April O’Neil,” the man leading promises with a dull, scraping voice. “Kraang Prime desires it.”

“Hmm, tempting, but no,” April declares, now up to her hip in the water. The men laugh mockingly, grating and hard on Leo’s ears, all the same tone and pitch, and follow her in. She’s terrified, Leo can see it in her eyes, but she holds her ground, glaring fiercely. 

“You will come with us, April O’Neil,” the man repeats balefully. “Kraang Prime desires -”

“I said _no_!” April shouts, taking another step back as they get even closer, but her leg twists under her and she goes down hard, splashing and crying out in pain. “Oh, fucking _fantastic_ ,” she splutters angrily as they grab for her. “How cliche. I’ve always wanted to die like this, thanks for fulfilling my wish -

And she’s cut off as Leo and his brothers _leap_ from the water and towards the men, teeth bared, eyes in slits, ready to protect a girl they'd never met. Leo slams into the leading man with a snarl, his weight instantly sending them both crashing backwards into the water. Leo takes the man's head between his large hands and _shoves_ , pushing him underneath the shallow water and holding him there, blue tail thrashing wildly as the guy bucks him, trying to get him off. His arms scrabble uselessly at Leo's lean arms, but Leo doesn't care, only forcing him deeper. 

Eventually, and it could have been seconds or hours, he stops fighting, and Leo exhales faintly, removing his hands from the man’s bruised neck and watching, detached, as the guy floats back up. Oh. He just - 

“I just killed a human,” he announces, eyes wide, not that anyone's listening. Raph’s taken down _two_ guys, one with his sais and oh _god_ he's literally broken the other man's _neck_ while Donnie and Mikey have taken one each. Within a few moments the men that they’re fighting have all stopped moving, limp and motionless, floating in the water.

“We all just _killed_ _a human_ ,” Leo says, louder and slightly more panicked. Mikey and Donnie exchange unreadable glances, and Raph shrugs, pushing one of floating men away from him. 

“Better than the sea serpent,” he says, and Donnie sighs, rolls his eyes so hard he probably sees the back of his head. 

“For the last time -

“What the _fuck_!” April shouts from behind them, confused, slightly angry, and terrified, and Leo closes his eyes, suddenly remembering she was there. Fuck, they were so _grounded_ when Splinter found out - no, wait, they'd be _dead_ , they just broke every single fucking rule _ever created to keep them safe_ \- 

Fuck. How would they die? Descaled and maimed, like Raph said?

“Oh, um…. _heyyy_ ,” Mikey grins, orange tail flapping as he tries to subtly pull himself away from the dead bodies floating in the water. His curly hair stuck to his head up here and Leo would probably laugh at how ridiculous it looks if he wasn’t so _terrified_. They just revealed their existence to a human. They just _killed_ five humans. God, he knew coming up to the surface was a bad idea. Even if it had been really fun before they had to kill people. It was a _bad_ idea. They were going to die. They were going to get _publicly executed_ and -

Leo exhales, counting up to ten and back down. He could do this. No thinking about being publicly executed. Not the time.

At least his brothers don't seem too bothered. Years of maiming and killing predatory mythical creatures that posed a threat on your home does that to you, he guesses. These guys had it coming, definitely, but it all depended on if April could keep this - _them_ \- a secret. They'd be dead meat otherwise, and Leo can feel the terror churning in his stomach.

“No one’s gonna believe you if you tell them about us,” Raph says bluntly to April, and wait, _shit_ , he’s actually got a point. Leo knows that mermaids were considered mythical creatures to humans, and while it had made him scoff before maybe it’d work into their favor tonight. She'd look insane if she was going to tell anybody, right? “Don’t even try. Seriously. I'd kill you before you could.”

“Raph, _chill the fuck out_. And quit being so rude.” Donnie snaps, glaring at Raph. “She’s obviously terrified, so lay off.” He returns his gaze to the human, who was staring at all of them with wide, unreadable blue eyes, and his expression becomes kinder and more understanding immediately. “Um...Miss, hey. Ignore him. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

She exhales, placing a trembling hand to her temple, closing her eyes for about five seconds before reopening them. “Mermaids. In the flesh, real, _mermaids_. And...mermaids that just killed my attackers. Mermaids that just saved my life. Oh, okay. Okay,” she mutters, and looks back up at them. They watched each other silently for a beat before she continued weakly, pushing her sopping wet hair over her shoulders. “Hey. I’m April. Thanks for saving my life.”

“Er...your welcome!” Leo says awkwardly. This was. Wow. Okay. Not what he expected. “Uhm...okay. He’s Donnie, he’s Raph, he’s Mikey…” he points to each brother in turn, introducing them so he could curb the need to ramble on and beg her not to tell anyone about them. “And I’m Leo. Are you okay?” 

“My leg crumpled when I hit the rock,” she points, fingers shaking. “I was so stupid to come out here alone, but I got in a fight with one of my friends and... _Casey,_ oh shit, he’s probably worried -” she breaks off when Donnie moves closer, purple tail glinting in the moonlight. Her face flushes as she stares at him, and he’s blushing too, and Leo just. Does _not_ have time for this. At _all._

“Okay, April. Um. The _rock_ ,” Donnie’s staring at the water furiously. “Is it on your...um, your foot?”

“Uhmmm _haha_ yeahh,” April says, still staring at Donnie. Her position changes as she shifts and she winces, attention successfully diverted to the problem at hand. “Stupid rock.” 

Donnie grabs, Leo’s guessing, the rock between his fingers and pulls, and a second later April’s free. “Thank you,” she says again, still mystified. “Sorry, um. I’m staring, aren’t I?”

“Just a bit,” Donnie chuckles, face still flushed. 

It's awkwardly silent again until Mikey, fidgeting, can stay quiet no longer. “What are we going to do now?” he asks, trying to be covert, but Leo knows April can hear every word they’re saying. 

“Well, we broke all of the rules,” Leo acknowledges sadly. “No human interaction, that went out the window. No touching human things, also out the window. Out of sight, out of mind -

“ _Leo_ ,” Raph sighs.

“No! Thank you. Really. Sorry, I’m, uh, still kinda shocked, but I’m really grateful, I promise! I...those men would have killed me. Once they took me to Prime’s.” April rubs her legs under the water, eyes downcast. “I have something they need. And I can’t give it to them, obviously, since what they need is up here,” she gestures towards her head. “They never send so many after me, y’know? Usually it’s just one guy. Maybe two. I would have been...killed. Seriously. I would have been _dead_.” she laughs, terror making it airy and almost like she was out of breath, and April tightens her arms around her shoulders and shudders. “What I’m trying to say is...you didn’t have to help. But you did. So thank you. Mermaid or not, you saved my life.”

“We couldn’t just sit here and let them take you,” Leo swims a bit closer, mystified that she was _thanking_ them instead of running away in fear, or asking to touch their scales, or being disrespectful, or... “Of course we had to help.” 

“But at the cost of revealing yourselves? That’s...a lot. Just for me, I mean. You need to be more careful.” April shakes her head gently, looking less shocked and more like she was chiding them. Leo tilts his head. She was...different. He liked her. Her eyes widen then, and she looks a lot more hurried as she realizes something. “You’ve gotta go. They’ll be wondering who took down five men and left them in the ocean. The town's gonna have a witch hunt.” 

“But what about you?” Donnie asks, placing a hand on her shoulder. April smiles, reaching forward and pressing a kiss to his cheek. Leo bites the inside of his cheek, fighting down the churning jealousy in his gut. It was the purple tail, wasn't it? Chicks dig purple. 

“I’ll be fine,” she promises, standing slowly. She takes a deep breath, and then tries to take a few controlled, small steps forward. She winces, holding her left knee, but eventually gets to the shore, sidestepping all the Kraang's (??) bodies. Turning back to face them, April sighs. “I’ll call Casey. Or my Dad. I’ll be okay. You need to go,” she repeats, more urgently. “Seriously. I don’t want you guys getting hurt.” 

Raph nods, giving her a salute, and Leo smiles, relieved that their secret was safe with her. Mikey and Donnie hesitate. “Will we ever see you again?” Mikey asks softly, eyes wide and hopeful, and April grins, shrugging. 

“I’ve always loved the beach during the night time,” she says, and Mikey takes that as a yes. He whoops and falls backwards into the water like he was going to make a snow angel in the water, and Leo rolls his eyes. So much for staying quiet! 

“A human friend! We’ve made a _human_ friend!” he grins. “Oh, just wait until Dad finds out - 

“He’s never going to find out,” Raph tugs on Mikey’s curls sternly, frowning down at him. “Come on, Prankenstein, let's go find something to eat.”

Donnie stares at April, fingers brushing over the spot she’d kissed him. “Um. Bye?”

April flushes again, the smile on her face becoming softer, more personal. “Bye, Donnie. Thank you.” 

“Stay safe, okay?” 

“Of course. You too.”

Donnie reluctantly turns away and follows Raph and Mikey back into the ocean. Leo waves at April, who waves back, and then he's gone back underneath. And once they’re far enough from the town, back safely deep underwater where they belong, Donnie loses it. 

“She _KISSED_ me!” he yells, twirling in a circle, a dazed expression on his face. “She KISSED me! OH my god. SHE KISSED ME SHE KISSED ME _SHE KISSED ME_ -

“Shut up, Donnie, before every single thing in this ocean kills you, including me." Raph refutes, though he’s got a pleased smirk on his face. “She _was_ kinda cool,” he admits. Donnie’s expression goes from lovestruck to evil in a millisecond. 

“She’s _mine_ , go find your own sexy red haired human.” 

“Shut up, both of you, let’s go find something to eat before we go back,” Leo interrupts, leading the way farther down, away from the surface. He's got so much to think about, he doesn't even know where to start. He needed to get his mind off of humans, and the humans they'd just _killed_ , and April. 

“Oh come _on,_ not seaweed _again_ ,” Mikey groans as he follows, apparently already over Donnie's breakdown. Leo rolls his eyes at his brother for what feels like the millionth time. 

“Seaweed helps you grow, Mike. _But_ , if you’re lucky, I’ll help you catch a few fish.” 

“Yay!” he exclaims, and Leo grins at him fondly. reaching out to ruffle his hair. Well...tonight could have been worse. 

It could have been so much worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HJEPFSFSFS this was so much fun to write i am BEAMING
> 
> im definitely continuing this btw ive got a whole plot figured out i was sitting in bed last night and POOF IT SHOWED UP I WAS LIKE. ;) yeah
> 
> mermaid poc brothers...human april and casey...hello...


	2. revealed

“You’ve been acting weird,” Casey remarks offhandedly, as if he isn’t the one rummaging through her closet. “Like, _mmf_ , super weird,” he continues, shoving another apple slice that he'd stolen from her fridge into his mouth. “What’s the deal, Red?” 

“Casey, get out of the closet,” April sighs, ignoring the way he tossed a smirk at her over his shoulder. “Not what I meant, idiot. I already know what sexuality you are. I meant literally. Ogling my clothes is not giving you any brownie points with me, I hope you know that.” 

Casey sighs exaggeratedly and gets out of her closet, flopping onto her bed dramatically. “What’s _up_ with you? You love to brood, and you’re super angsty, but you’ve never been _this_ broody or angsty.”

“I’m never broody _or_ angsty, thank you very much,” April flops down next to him, staring up at the ceiling. She couldn’t stop thinking about -

She’d seen mermaids. Actual mermaids. In the flesh mermaids. And they were - 

“What would you do if you got hunted by a secret evil organization and mermaids saved you from getting captured?” April asks Casey. She thinks of Donnie and _refuses_ to let a blush color her face. “ _And_ you find one of them attractive.” 

“The mermaids or the secret evil organization?” Casey asks, laughing and twisting away when April tries to pinch him. “Hey, I’m _serious_ , stop it!”

“The mermaids, asshole.”

“Ummm...I don’t know. Mermaids are sexy, though.”

“Right,” April agrees. He's definitely not wrong.

“Was that a serious question? Because you’re acting like that was a completely normal thing to ask.” 

“I’m completely serious,” April says seriously, tilting her head to the side so she can stare at him. She _knew_ he wasn't going to believe her, so grinning, she continues. “I’m getting chased by a secret evil organization called the Kraang and they want what’s in my brain and last week I went to the ocean after we had that fight on the phone and there were five of them attacking me and I was saved by mermaids.”

Casey laughs. “You’re _high_.” 

“Am not!” she giggles, though she has to admit it sounds ridiculous when she says it out loud. She does wish she could actually show him, but she’d made a promise to the boys. It was her and them, at least for right now. They needed to be careful. “You staying over tonight?” 

“Can’t, Dad’s probably forcing me n’ the sis to stay in tonight. “Board Game Friday” aka the quickest way to put me to sleep.”

“Aw, don’t be mean! That’s cute! My Dad just...works. And he comes home and we have dinner and if I’m lucky we watch a movie. Then he goes to sleep. Rinse and repeat.” 

“Sounds even lamer, honestly.” 

“Casey!” April snorts, punching his shoulder. Her life was anything _but_ boring, especially now. She didn’t have school tomorrow, and if Casey wasn’t staying over...maybe she could try the beach again tonight. She had to admit she was eager to see them again. She kinda wanted confirmation that she wasn’t a basket case, too. “Hey, another hypothetical question.”

“Shoot.”

“If mermaids were real and came to the shore, and they’d _never_ had human food before, what would you feed them?”

“Honestly?” Casey asks, and April nods. “Pizza. You haven’t lived until you’ve had pizza.” 

-

“Come on, _please_ ,” Donnie begs, and Leo rolls his eyes. He would have been a bit more inclined to agree with his brother if this wasn’t the third time he’s asked in the past five minutes. 

“Don, we’ve been to that beach _three times_ since last weekend and she hasn’t come back. It’s time to be honest, we’ve probably scared her off.” Raph’s sharpening his sai on one of the coral sticks that poked through their window, and it makes an annoying grinding noise that Leo was tired of _two_ seconds after it started. "Look at Leo, he practically has a heart attack everytime we go."

"I'm just trying to keep us safe and _not_ dead," Leo defends, bristling. "Did you manage to forget that if we get caught we could literally die -

"Nothings happened to us so far!" Raph rolls his eyes. "You're so paranoid." 

“Maybe something happened to her,” Donnie muses, interrupting Leo's response and rolling over on his bed. Well, not exactly a _bed_. They each had giant clam shells used as a place to curl up into when it was time to sleep, but they weren’t as small as they used to be so their tails nearly always hung off the end. “What do you think, Mikey?”

“Hm? Oh! Sorry,” Mikey startles, and they all look over to see their youngest brother scrubbing the scales on his tail so hard the orange glinted. “I haven’t cleaned them in awhile!” he sheepishly grins as they raise their eyebrows at him. “What were we talking about?” 

“April,” Donnie says, and Mikey furrows his eyebrows. 

“I think we should keep going back! What if she comes back and we’re not there and she gets in trouble again? Those guys that were chasing her were _really_ bad news, remember? Maybe she’s been too scared to come back, and that’s why we haven’t seen her! Or maybe she’s busy! We won’t know until we talk to her!” Mikey exclaims, flapping his tail so hard that dead scales flake off.

“Mikey! Not in the _bedroom_ , gross!” Leo shouts, flying across the room and grabbing his brother by the arm, dragging him off his own clam shell and towards the exit. Donnie and Raph watch as their brothers tussle before Leo manages to push Mikey out. “Clean your tail. Outside. We’ve been over this.”

“ _Nooo_ but I want to _talk to you guys_ -

“ _Outside_ , Michelangelo.” 

“Or she thinks we’re batshit insane,” Raph adds onto Mikey’s list, and Donnie laughs as Leo reappears in the doorway, wrinkling his nose at Mikey’s discarded scales (that were now floating aimlessly in the far side of the room). “So, whaddaya say, Fearless?” Raph continues, _finally_ stopping with the sai scraping. “Night in the town, yeah?” 

“You guys totally owe me,” Leo faces away from them so they can’t see his expression. He could never say no to his siblings, no matter how hard he tried.

“Aw come on, you like her too, don’t you? She’s better than Slash’s group,” Donnie teases, shaking his short, brown, unruly hair so it was out of his eyes. 

“ _Anyone’s_ better than Slash’s group,” Leo corrects, glancing at his brothers over his shoulder before messing with one of his dreadlocks absentmindedly, twisting it between his fingers. He stares into the scrap of metal they used as a mirror as he continues, eyes raking over his reflection. “The only one I like out of that entire team is Leatherhead, and that’s _only_ because Mikey likes him and I’m being a very good brother and respecting Mikey’s crushes.” 

“Oh God, still? I thought he got over him?” Donnie sits up, back against his upper clam shell. Leo shakes his head. 

“Nope, he’s a mess about the guy. You should have heard him when we were fishing yesterday, it was Leatherhead this, Leatherhead that, ‘Oh, Leo, LH’s tail, I _love_ the green, it looks so cool, and his face? Like, I don’t _know_ how he makes scars that sexy’”, Leo’s voice pitches upwards a few to imitate Mikey, and Raph and Donnie _cackle._

“That is _not_ what my voice sounds like!” Mikey yells from outside, and his brothers laugh harder. 

When everyone finally calms down, the snickering tapering off, Leo gives up on his hair and turns, facing his brothers. “We should get her a gift. April, I mean.”

“Why?”

“Just cause. I have a feeling we’re gonna see her tonight. Plus I wanna be nice. Last time we saw her things were so tense. We're pretty laidback guys, right?” 

Raph sighs. “Fine, whatever. Anything to get you to be quiet. What do human girls like?” Raph drops his sai on his own clam shell and swims from one side of the room to the other, stretching his arms out lazily as he does so.

“She’d probably love the coral reef, but humans don’t breathe underwater. Wait - hold on. Mikey, get in here,” Donnie calls, and seconds later Mikey’s back, grinning smugly. Guess he’d finished with his tail, then. “Do you remember where we put those shells?” 

“Oh yeah, they’re in the garden! What do we need them for?”

“We’re gonna give one of them to April,” Donnie explains as he rolls his shoulders, pushing himself off his shell so he could get to the door. “Girls like pretty things, right? And shells are _really_ pretty. Ooh, and Raph should give it to her, since he was such an asshole to her last time -

“I thought she was gonna tell the world we existed, forgive me for being a little rude,” Raph says, acid green eyes gleaming as he glares at his slightly younger brother. Donnie, unaffected by Raph's death stare, glares right back.

“Yeah, sure. You’re giving it to her.”

“Fine, lover boy. Just don’t complain when I steal your new _girlfriend._ ” Raph grins, resuming his lazy swimming.

“...nevermind, _I’m_ giving it to her.” 

-

April holds the pizza in her arms and makes her way towards the shore she was nearly killed at a week prior, looking warily through the nearly abandoned streets. A couple cars swung by now and then, but besides them it was quiet. Really quiet. Especially for a Friday evening. She didn’t know whether to be suspicious or not.

She brought pepper spray this time, although she’s not too sure if it’ll work. Hopefully her Kraang friends don’t show up - she really couldn’t afford to get jumped again. If this kept happening her Dad would start looking for a new place to move, and she didn’t want that. Not with Casey here, or her new friends down in the ocean.

Speaking of the boys, she hopes they’ll like the pizza. She’d spent ten dollars and got the really puffy crust. 

She finally gets to the sand, flicking her sandals off and sitting at the shore, pulling her sweatshirt farther around her and digging her toes into the sand. She was sitting in the dark, alone. Great. She should’ve brought a -

 _Oh._ She grabs her phone and hits the flashlight button. The faint light instantly calms her nerves. That’ll work until her phone dies. 

She pulls her knees to her chest, looking over the ocean with a mystified expression, listening to the waves crash against the shore. A week ago she had no idea what she thought ‘mythical’ creatures even existed, but guess what? Apparently they _did_. And they weren’t old, scary sirens that lured her into the sea with their powerful voices - they were boys her age. Four, regular boys with the very irregular exception of being half fish. Insane. What’s her life turning into?

She sits in silence for another ten minutes, oddly at peace until she sees the waves break maybe a few yards away. She immediately perks up, grinning, as they appear, scanning the shore nervously until catching sight of her. She waves, timidly, and they beam back. Mikey’s the first towards her, panting slightly as he pulls himself onto the shore, and April doesn’t even hesitate to open her arms for him to crash into. “You came back!” he exclaims, sopping wet and soaking the front of her sweatshirt but she doesn’t care. Not in the slightest.

Affectionate mermaids. She loves them. 

“Yeah, I did,” she pulls away as the other boys reach them, pulling themselves up on the soft sand to sit with her. Their tails are _so_ beautiful, long and elegant and somehow reflect their personalities. Leo’s was a midnight blue, Raph’s a fiery red, Mikey’s a vibrant orange, and Donnie’s a deep violet. They shimmered in the moonlight, waving back and forth as they struggled to get comfortable. Leo and Donnie greet her quietly, still slightly awestruck, while Raph gives her a clipped but polite "hey", and April doesn't regret a single thing that's happened to her to get to this point. 

“I knew you couldn't stay away from us,” Mikey whispers, sitting as close to her as he possibly could, resting his curly, sopping wet hair on her shoulder. “The other guys didn’t believe me, but -

“Oy! What are you two talking about over there?” Raph snarks, glaring, and Mikey and April giggle. April leans into Mikey's touch for another minute before gently extracting herself to grab her gift for them.

“I got something for you,” April says as they _finally_ get situated, grabbing the pizza box from the ground and opening it, placing it in front of them. “It’s called pizza. Human food. It doesn’t bite, you can touch it!” she laughs at their hesitation as they look at each other and then down at the circular food item, which was still slightly steaming. Mikey, shrugging, grabs the first slice and takes a tentative bite. 

Immediately his eyes close and he swallows, _mmming_ as he takes another bite, and then another, and _another_ , and as they watch quietly as Mikey downs the entire thing, licking his lips in satisfaction. “Oh...that was _gross_ ,” he complains, already reaching for another slice. “You guys should just leave me the rest -

Immediately they’re fighting, taking slices from the box, and April’s laughing harder than she’s had in weeks and cooing inwardly at how they were sweet enough to leave a slice for her. Even though this is her gift to them. She takes the last piece and puts the box aside, taking a bite. Casey was right. Pizza _was_ the way to go. And apparently the boys agree, because they're thanking her as soon as they finish, happy and satisfied. 

“We got you something too,” Donnie murmurs, and before April can blink he’s handing her a real, pristine, virtually untouched Conch shell. She takes it in her hands, (ignoring the way her heart stutters as her fingers brush Donnie’s, what was _with_ her?) examining it, eyes wide. 

“Dad says it's called a Queen Conch shell. From the Bahamas. We found it when we were scavenging a couple years ago,” Donnie continues. “It was in one of those human boats.”

“It’s beautiful,” April remarks, already planning on clearing her entire dresser just so she can show it off. Casey was totally going to think she was gambling, but it didn’t matter. “Thank you, you guys. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“And I’ve bet you’ve never seen mermaids before, either, but here we are,” Raph smirks, and April makes a face at him. He's got a point, but touche. “ _Seriously_ , though,” he scratches his neck as he looks her over. “We honestly didn’t think you’d come back. We thought something happened -

“Guys, I’m completely fine! Well, a little tired, but that’s - _hey_ , how many times have you been up here since last week?” 

They immediately look away, flushing, until Leo lets out a muttered ‘three’ and April feels her heart _ache_. “Oh, you guys. I’m so sorry, that’s totally on me. I should have told you - I’ve got school the last week - from Monday to Friday, and - I haven’t gotten the time to come down at night.”

“No, that’s - _fine_ , completely fine! You obviously have a life too, we were just worried about... _y’know_ , those guys that were following you last time…” Leo says, more quietly. “And, um. You’re our first friend. _Human_ friend,” he corrects hurriedly, tail thrashing anxiously. 

“She _is_ our first friend, you dolt.” Raph thwacks the back of Leo’s head, who hisses and glares at the broader, more muscled teen. “The Mutanimals don’t count. They’re like our estranged cousins.”

“Ew, don’t say that! I can’t have a crush on Leatherhead if we’re _family_ ,” Mikey complains, and the other boys roll their eyes at him.

April furrows her eyebrows, confused. “Mutanimals?”

“Oh, um. Some of our...well. Other mermaids. We have a love-hate relationship with them,” Donnie explains. “They’re kinda...jerks. But also our allies. It’s confusing.”

“I still can’t believe they haven’t changed their group name. Are they still pretending to be mutants?” Leo asks.

“Leo, when we were younger we pretended to be mutant _ninja turtles_. Live and let live.” Raph rolls his eyes. “If they wanna play make believe, let ‘em.”

April’s flabbergasted. They threw out this random information casually, but it was already overloading her. “Wait, wait, hold on. There’s _more_ of you?” she interrupts Leo before he can start lecturing Raph on the importance of growing up from make believe games. 

“Mhm,” Mikey hums in assent. “We have a whole _city_ down there, babe. Run by a King. It’s kinda like up here, just...underwater. And a lot stricter. Y'know we could get killed if they catch us up here with you? Course’, city's kinda starting to empty out now, since the ‘maids are gonna have to start flocking towards the warmer waters when it gets colder, and a lot of them don’t ever come back because of the witch -

“Witch.” April repeats. The other boys look mortified as Mikey continues. 

“Yeah, the evil sea witch!”

“Mikey, you’re freaking her out.” Donnie pinches the bridge of his nose, looking exhausted. April laughs.

“Oh, I’m definitely freaking out. But...wow, _please_ tell me more. What kind of things did you guys fight?” April cranes her head sideways to look at Mikey, interested now. “What’s the evil sea witch, what does she do? Does she eat mermaids -

“Now you’re freaking _me_ out, Ape,” Mikey shivers. “But yeah, according to the myth, she’s an evil sorceress named Chaos. There was this one mermaid, a millennium ago, who wanted to become a human because she wanted a human soul. Well…she also fell in love _with_ a human, but that’s besides the point. So she went to the witch, and in exchange for human legs she gave up - 

“- her voice,” April interrupts, staring wide-eyed at Mikey. They all blink at her, and Mikey gapes.

“How’d you _know_ that?”

April exhales, voice suddenly shaking. “That’s the plot of a _Disney movie_...wait, you’re telling me -

Was the movie based on...true events? _What_ -

“The fuck is a Disney movie?” Raph asks, clearly focused on the wrong things in their conversation. 

“It’s...um…I don’t know how to explain. Basically it’s like...a children's story. A _fictional_ children's story. The mermaid’s name was Ariel, she went to the witch Ursula because she was in love with the human prince, the witch wanted her voice. If she didn’t get the guy to fall in love with her in three days she’d become part of the witches...erm, _collection_. It’s a happy ending, though. The witch dies and they live happily ever after,” April trails off, confused. Mikey said that the witch was still _alive_. Maybe she should have watched the sequel.

“That’s...wrong,” Leo shakes his head. “That doesn’t happen at all. She becomes a human, yeah, and she has to get the prince to fall in love with her, but they don’t end up together. He falls in love and marries another girl on this ship, and the witch tells her that if she wants to become a mermaid again she’d have to kill the prince with this dagger and...uh, have his blood drip on her feet or something. But she doesn’t do it, because she still loves him. So when dawn comes she throws herself and the dagger off the side of the ship and dissolves into sea foam. But instead of dying, she becomes a spirit and has to do good things for humankind for 300 years, and then she’d get a soul and go to Heaven.”

“What the fuck,” April states, not doing a very good job at keeping the shock out of her voice. “My entire childhood is...a lie. I...thought it was all fake, but the story...it’s real. Not the Disney version, obviously. I'm guessing they changed it so they could show the story to kids. They'd probably get ruined if they showed someone committing suicide..." she trails off, shaking her head. "But it's based on a _true_ story? What the fuck?" 

“April, you’re sitting on a beach with four mermaids. Your kind call us myths, but you’ve seen us, we’re obviously _real_. Everything you’ve read, or have been told about mythical creatures is probably true, but I’m guessing the facts have been twisted so much by humans that it’s hard to get the stories straight,” Donnie explains gently. “I know it probably sounds unbelievable.”

“Oh, really?” April says weakly, twisting some of the hair in her fingers anxiously. “Unbelievable is _definitely_ up there, along with _crazy_ , and _mindblowing_ , and _insane,_ and really, really cool. Freaky, but. You’re...mermaids. You’re right. Should I be surprised at this point?”

Oh, she’s definitely surprised. And freaked out. And slightly, kinda, maybe a _lot_ scared. But it was _awesome_ . Evil witches were real. _Ariel_ had been real. And - oh God, what _else_ was real?

“Raph...you said something about a sea serpent last time. You’re not talking about those huge ones - the ones that are over a hundred feet long, thick as that boardwalk, got a horse-like head and the body of a snake, are you?”

“That’s the one, yeah,” Raph nods casually, picking at his fingernails now.

April can’t hide the shrillness of her voice this time. “And you guys fought it?”

“ _No_!” Leo and Donnie shout at the same time. “We _didn’t_ fight it. This asshole we know was trying to study it from farther away and managed to get himself caught in it’s trap. We went on a rescue mission to save him and _somehow_ didn’t die. Seriously. It was dumb luck. We wouldn’t be here if we actually _fought_ it.” Donnie continues, glaring at Raph. “Stop telling every new person we meet that, Raphael.”

“Fuck you. It makes us sound cool,” Raph snaps back, and April’s reminded of Casey. She thinks the two of them would really get along. 

“Oh, thank God. I was gonna shake you all and wonder why you’d be stupid enough to fight something that’s a hundred feet long,” April says, relieved.

“ _Hey_!” Raph bristles, complaining, red tail flicking in indignation, and the rest of them all collectively laugh. Besides how crazy this entire thing was and how her head is now pounding with all of the information they’ve revealed, she really does feel like she’s among friends. 

April smiles softly. “Anyway, I’m honored that I’m your guys’...er, first friend. First human friend,” she corrects, meeting Leo’s exasperated gaze. “We should make a schedule, so I can come down here as much as possible and we can meet up. I’ll bring more pizza, too.” 

“ _Yes_! Bring some _only_ for me,” Mikey declares, accepting the sudden change in conversation immediately, and the other boys roll their eyes while April giggles. It was so easy being with them, even though she’s known them for a week she adores them already. “Okay, girlie. Your turn. What’s being a human like?” Mikey asks, and the others look towards her expectantly.

“It’s...complicated. We have legs, so that’s our only physical difference,” she says, wiggling her toes at them. “We can’t breathe underwater like you guys can - but I can swim and hold my breath for maybe four minutes. Casey - my other friend - he can do six. We tried to beat the world record,” she laughs sheepishly. “The highest a human can hold their breath is currently twenty-two minutes.”

(She thinks she hears a muttered _lame_ from Raph).

“Other than that, we...well. We’ve got a civilization up here,” she gestures towards the town behind her. “Schools, a work force, a military...it’s nice, but...yeah, it’s lame. I bet being a mermaid you guys have no responsibilities.”

“Oh, yes we do! What, did you think we just sat and swam around all day?” Mikey asks, and before April can confirm or deny he continues. “April, babe, remember two minutes ago when I was telling you about how we have an entire city down under? Yeah. We have a whole city down under. And there’s loads of responsibilities. Loads of em’. Our king has to get along with the _other_ kings of the ocean, and they suckat getting along. A couple years before we were born, our kingdom actually justended a civil war with the mermaid kingdom from the North.”

Oh god, information overload, _again_. “Mermaid kingdoms. Civil wars. Shocking, but I will not comment on it. Please continue.” 

“We have to stay on the good side of all the other mythical creatures, too,” Donnie interjects, sliding a hand through his unruly, dark brown, almost dry hair. “We’re on the good side of the hippocampi, because they’re universally peaceful, but we were invaded by a Kraken - you know, a giant octopus-like creature. It took weeks to drive it off, and it killed _so many_ of us.”

“I have _no_ idea why they hate mermaids,” Raph grumbles, still picking at his fingers. “s’ not like we did anything to them -

“Actually, Raph, mermaids used to kill and eat Kraken, so -

“Thanks for the insight I didn’t need, Donnie,” Raph cuts him off immediately, and Donnie rolls his eyes. April swallows a giggle. They acted like -

Wait.

“You guys are brothers, right? I mean, I’m assuming so, but - I’m kinda wondering _how_ , since you guys have tails, and - oh God, I did not. Just ask that. I’m gonna stop talking now,” April clamps a hand over her mouth as they erupt into full fledged laughter, all four of them. “Oh my God, _stoppp_ ,” she groans through the spaces between her fingers as Raph has to physically wipe his eyes and everyone’s _cackling_. “Someone please change the subject, Jesus Christ -

Her sentence is cut off as her phone suddenly starts ringing, and the boys startle into silence, staring down at the phone in confusion and slight alarm. April grabs it, flipping it over so she wouldn’t shine the flashlight in anyone’s eyes, and looks to see who’s calling. 

“Don’t say a _word_ , okay?” April whispers urgently, and the brothers nod quickly, watching her and the phone with wide eyes. April turns the volume to the highest it would go and presses the accept button. “Hey, Casey! It’s so nice to hear from you at nine...o’clock?” she swipes down at the top just to make sure. 9:09. “What’s up?” 

“Okay, so, what the fuck is going on right now,” Casey starts the conversation off strongly over the tiny speaker. “Dad went out clubbing with his lame friends instead of coming home and Sam apparently had a sleepover, which _no one_ bothered to tell me about! I dropped her off, and then I came over to your place, but your Dad says you went to the ocean, and - Red, I can’t find you at any of the beaches. Literally. This town is _not_ that big.”

April swallows and exchanges nervous glances with the brothers. “Um...yeah. About that.”

“Did you get lost again?” Casey sounds skeptical, but then there’s a screamed “Oh, _fuck_ , hey! Watch where you drive, asshole!” As he continues to curse, she grips the phone tighter in her fingers, sighing as she waits for him to calm down. Casey Jones was so unbelievably _embarrassing_. 

The boys watch the phone, fascinated and slightly amused, as Casey finally stops screaming and scoffs loudly into the receiver. “Hey, you’re probably at the boardwalk. That’s the only place I haven’t checked yet, and -

“Yes! I mean _no_ , I’m not at the boardwalk!” April shouts, feeling dread curl ominously in her stomach. “Do _not_ come to the boardwalk, I’m not there - 

“You’re acting pretty sus, babe,” Casey interrupts, sounding concerned. “Are you...okay? What’s up?” 

“Oh, haha, _nothing_ ...” April is _such_ a bad liar and it shows, her voice always cracks when she tries to hide something and fuck, Casey _knows_ that, that’s why they could never keep secrets from eachother, and she needs to end this conversation _right now before the brothers get exposed again, they couldn’t, they trusted her_ -

“Listen, I’m right here, I literally just pulled up. Just - if you committed a murder I’ll help you hide the body, alr -

April ends the call, hair whipping over her shoulders as she looks back up the beach, searching frantically for Casey’s truck. Fuck, _fuck_ , he’s literally right there. He’s right - 

“You guys have to go. _Right_ _now._ ” April hisses, because they’re still apparently not getting the drift and they were going to get _caught_ , why weren’t they moving? “Go! He’s gonna come down here _-_

“He’s your friend, right? This is the Casey you've been talking about?” Raph asks, not looking worried in the slightest. He’s. not moving. None of them are moving. "He's a good guy, right? Trustworthy?"

April resists the urge to scream and shake Raph’s shoulders. “Yes, he's my friend, yes he's trustworthy, but. You guys. Are fucking. Mermaids,” she punctuates slowly, visibly trembling. Casey was going to find them if they didn’t move _right_ _now_. “You guys want to do this _right_ _now_ \- 

“We trust you,” Donnie says simply, and _wow_ , like that solves all of their problems. “If he’s your friend, we wanna meet him.”

“Oh, my god.” _Oh my god. They’ve lost it._ “Please. You guys. I adore you, I really do. But this is - you can’t - this is _serious_ , he - 

“What’s he gonna do? Who’s he gonna tell? From the conversation we just had, _you_ still thought of all of us as mythical,” Raph smirks, cocking his eyebrows like he’d just made a very good point. April looks to Leo, to see what he thought, but he just shrugs helplessly.

"If its just him coming down here, and he's your friend and you think he's trustworthy and wouldn't expose us...well, then. I don't see the problem," Leo admits quietly. April sighs, giving up and grabbing her phone. 

These boys were going to be the _death_ of her. 

“Hey, Case. Sorry for hanging up on you,” she apologizes as soon as he picks up, even though she’s not sorry at all, she’s just tired. “Hey, I have a surprise for you. Come down to the beach. Right next to the boardwalk, right side.” She hangs up without waiting for a response, and throws the phone back into the sand, glaring at the brothers. Who don’t even have the nerve to _look_ apologetic. “I literally hate you all.”

"No you don't," Raph grins.

"Yes I _do_ ," she insists. 

“Oh come _on_ ,” Mikey singsongs, scooching even closer to April. “You _can’t_ hate us, we’re your mermaid friends! How bad can it really be?"

"Knowing Casey? He could try and beat one of you up just to show off."

"That makes two of us," Raph snorts. 

"Oh, my god." a different voice says, and April freezes, hearing the sudden crunching of the sand and feeling the phone flashlight on them.

April sighs. The brothers look past her to the tall, gangly teen with the messy, unruly black hair, tooth gap, and the wide brown eyes. "Hey, Casey," she exhales, closing her eyes and readying herself for his reaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the boys are so clingy and naive w humans its adorable :(( 
> 
> im totally with april though caseys good people but he can be a little...irrational at times. 
> 
> OH THEYRE ALL GONNA BE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS I CANT WAIT


	3. across the night

“April.” 

“Yeah, Casey?” April asks, keeping her eyes tightly closed. Bracing herself for his reaction. 

“ _Why are there mermaids on the beach_ \- wait, no, hold on. It’s a Halloween party. Y’all are dressing up. Sweet. What’s up, y’all, I’m Casey -”

“Casey, it’s July.”

“Okay, so...there’s only one other option. I’m high as fuck and doing drugs. Unless you - oh. Oh. You - _oh_.” Casey says, and April opens her eyes to look nervously at him. He’s stumped. She looks back at the boys. They’re watching him with wide eyes, waiting for his next move. “So...you weren’t making it up, back in your room. About the mermaids.”

“You _told_ him?” Raph hisses, unfreezing everyone from the frozen spell they were under at the anger in his voice.

April rolls her eyes, kicking Raph’s exposed stomach lightly with her toes. She immediately retracts them as he swipes for her. “Oh, wow, _now_ you care. Yes, I did tell him. And he didn’t believe me, because who would? We treated the entire thing like it was a conversation topic. He’s actually the one who suggested getting you guys pizza,” she shrugs. “He’s a pretty reliable guy, and I _was_ gonna ask you guys later if you could meet him, but nope. We’re doing this right now,” She smiles winningly up at Casey, probably trying her best to swallow her annoyance at the utter shock on his face. “You guys, this is Casey Jones. Casey, this is Raph, Leo, Mikey, and Donnie,” she points at each brother, phone flashlight illuminating their expressions. 

“Nice to meet you,” Leo says automatically. Casey chuckles nervously, legs trembling so much he decides to sit down, as close to April as possible. 

“Not to be. Um, a dick, or anything. Because y’all look like...nice guys, really. Seriously. But. What the _fuck_ ,” Casey manages to say, then he reaches over and pinches April. She shrieks, scooting away from him.

“ _What_ the hell was that for?” April asks angrily and rubs the place he’d pinched her, cursing Casey and his fingernails under her breath.

“Just wanted to make sure we weren’t dreaming,” Casey replies, as smoothly as he can when he’s also staring at a quartet of mermaids that were now glaring at him. “Um, Red, they’re…

“Glaring at you? Yeah, we are. Don’t touch her like that,” Raph folds his arms and stares him down. “Pinch yourself next time, dumbass. If you haven’t noticed yet, you’re not dreaming.” 

“You - okay. Listen here, buddy. I’ve known you for _two_ minutes and you’re already threatening me. Chill the fuck out. You have a fucking tail, but all I have to do is stand up and you’re _dead_ ,” he jabs a finger in Raph's direction. April feels her mouth fall open as he continues. “You think you scare me?”

“Casey, you _idiot_ , shut up!” April slaps his shoulder. “They saved my life last week. Show some common decency and quit being an asshole.”

“I can _smell_ the fear on you, you fucking idiot,” Raph grins back, ignoring April as he sits back on his hands, tail waving through the air, closer and closer to Casey, who looks more and more uncomfortable the closer it gets. “Sure, you’ve got legs, you can stand. But I’m also a trained killer,” Raph boasts, flashing his weapon at him. “I’ve fought -

“Say you’ve fought a sea serpent, I fucking dare you,” Donnie mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose and he looks so completely done with this entire argument. 

\- a sea serpent. I’ve seen a Kraken in the flesh. I just killed two of April’s Kraang buddies last week. I’ve murdered bigger than _you_ , _Casey Jones_ ,” Raph laughs mockingly, and Casey - 

Casey roars, launching himself at the red-tailed mermaid, and Leo scrambles out of the way as they tumble down the beach, pulling hair and scratching eachother and sending sand _everywhere_. “Oh, _wow_ ,” Mikey says, raising his eyebrows as he watches them both collectively lose their shit. “Should we stop them?”

“No, let them fight it out.” April sighs. “At least he got over his shock quickly.” She rubs the side of her head, gazing tiredly at the three calmer brothers. “Sorry about Casey. Usually he’s not this much of a dick.”

“Oh, it’s fine, Raph’s just as bad. He's usually awful to new...people? Creatures? Whatever. It’s his charm,” Donnie pulls himself to Casey’s now abandoned place next to April, and when his tail rests on her legs April suddenly has the strange urge to touch it, but...she didn’t want to be rude. “Go ahead,” Donnie catches her staring, suddenly embarrassed. “I don’t mind. My tail is really sensitive, though, so be careful -

April reaches out, slowly, dragging a finger across his violet scales, and Donnie shuts up, looking towards Leo and Mikey for help - but they’re both enraptured by Casey and Raph’s fighting. Donnie exhales, looking back towards April, and is surprised to see the concentration on her face. “It’s...smooth,” she notes, staring down at it with an awestruck expression. “And sensitive?” she asks, looking back up at Donnie and grinning mischievously when he nods. “Sensitive _how_?” 

“Well. Um - 

“Fuck you!” Casey yells, interrupting Donnie’s response. The two glance back over to the wrestling and the muffled screaming. “You weird ass fish _thing_ -

Raph finally gains the advantage in the scuffle and pins Casey to the sand. “I’m a mermaid, you fucking _white ass_ \- 

Casey’s response falters as he stares up at the boy pinning him down, eyes wide and panting just a small bit. Raph’s panting just a bit too, staring back at him, tail flicking angrily and waiting for him to make a move. Casey relaxes, glancing over to April and then grinning up at him. “ _Hot_ mermaids.”

“Oh, no, _Casey_ ,” April buries her head in her hands as Raph makes a noise somewhere between a scream and a strangled wheeze. “He’s openly bisexual,” April adds in an undertone to the others as Casey bursts out laughing. Donnie looks over to the boy, who’s clearly getting comfortable in Raph’s hold. Leo’s eyes are _wide_ and Mikey’s hiding giggles.

“Gonna call em’ out as I see them, O’Neil,” Casey calls over to her, overhearing. “Don’t pretend you don’t find them attractive, either -

The brothers all look back over to her and April, who was just emerging from her hands, makes a mortified noise and dives straight back in.

“Anyway, what was it? Raph, right?” Casey asks, smirking up at him. Raph nods, eyes still wide. “Listen, as much as I like some macho guy straddling me, mermaid or not, there’s a fucking. Rock. Digging into my back,” he winces, and Raph hesitates, clearly debating on whether to let him up. Finally he does so, and Donnie notices the flush to his brother’s cheeks, fully intending on teasing him when they leave.

He couldn’t blame Raph, though. Casey _was_...something else. “You're getting over your ‘oh-mermaids are real’ shock pretty quickly,” Donnie observes, and Casey’s eyes fly to him. “Faster than April, at least.”

“Who says I’m not shocked? I’m positively freaking the fuck out, dude. I’m on a beach with four mermaids and my best friend slash girlfriend -

“ _Girlfriend_?” the brothers repeat incredulously, trying to eye the two humans at the same time. 

“It’s complicated,” April and Casey say immediately. “ _Really_ complicated,” April flashes Casey a glare, which Casey shrugs at. 

“Only thing complicating it is the fact that the Kraang’s after you, babe,” Casey remarks. April’s eyes go impossibly wide at that and Casey chuckles. “What, think I didn’t know? Your Dad’s easy to get info out of, Red. And the fact that you were down by the exact same boardwalk where five guys mysteriously died - now _that_ freaked me out for a bit. I thought you killed them, actually. Out of self-defense.” Casey rubs the back of his neck. “But _mermaids_ , now that was the one part I didn’t believe...”

“I was going to tell you, I promise!” April shakes her head, flushing guiltily. “About the Kraang, about them, about _everything_. I just...didn’t know how.”

“You could have _tried_ ,” Casey retorts, crossing his arms and angling his head away from her. “We’re supposed to be close, April. You don’t have to do everything by yourself.”

“I’m sorry.” April utters, hanging her head. It’s deathly silent before she continues, more quietly. “I just...didn’t wanna lose you, y’know? Who wants to date a girl that’s being targeted by an organization that wants your brain? I was lucky that night, Casey. They saved me, and they didn’t _have_ to, but they did. And - I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want to put them in danger, even though I know you’d never do anything to them. I just wanted them to be safe.”

“We told you already, we trust you,” Donnie rubs her back. “You wouldn’t put us in danger, so. If you were friends with Casey, it must have meant that we could trust him, too. And we can, can’t we?” he looks back over to Casey, who nods about half a million times.

“I’m still...out of it, really - this is crazy. But...you can trust me. You saved April’s life, all of you. Puts you good in my book.” Casey side eyes Raph, who pointedly looks away. “Even Raph over here.”

“Shut up, Jones.” Raph snarks. 

“ _Just_ the two of you, right?” Leo narrows his eyes at the two of them. “No one else?”

“No one else,” April confirms. “I don’t have any other friends. Besides Irma, I guess, but we aren’t that close.”

“Then yeah. Welcome to the gang, Casey,” Leo shrugs. “We need to have a conversation. About everything, regarding you two. I’m confused about - everything. You knew? About April being at the boardwalk?”

“Yeah, I knew. She can’t hide anything from me, we’ve known each other for about...a year and a half? Since we were fifteen. Apparently the Kraang’s been after her since she was a kid, though, so that was the _one thing_ -

“I’m a _target_ ,” April replies tiredly. “Along with the fact that my Dad forbade me from telling anyone, I was too scared of putting you in danger - 

“ _Fuck_ that, you could have - 

“No arguing!” Mikey interrupts, shutting Casey up abruptly. “Listen, both of you have your issues, we get it. You can work them out later. We just need to know if April’s in danger.”

It’s silent for a beat as everyone exchanges glances, looking down at the usually carefree brother. Finally April nods, hesitantly. “They’ve _been_ after me. Usually they send a guy, two guys. But I’m able to evade them most of the time, since they know I’m in this town but they can’t find out where I live. I’ve been _so_ careful, because if they find out where I live it’s all over, me n’ Dad will have to skip town. They’ll be sending more. They’re getting desperate.”

“Desperate? What do they need you for?” Donnie asks.

“It’s my brain. They’ve...tested on my family in the past. They took my mother,” April reveals, pulling her knees to her chest. “They’re after me now, because my brain...it’s special. My Dad’s told me I’m not even completely...um. Human,” she can’t ignore the shocked looks on their faces as she reveals more and more about her past. “Fuck, see, this is why I don’t _tell_ people.”

“Doesn’t matter to us,” Mikey gestures to his brothers, and they nod. “Who are we to judge?”

“Hey, it doesn’t matter to me either!” Casey protests, determined not to get left out of the loop. Despite the seriousness of the conversation, April laughs.

“This has been...the weirdest night ever. But I feel good. Really. I could probably say I’ve killed someone and you’d accept that, wouldn’t you?” April asks, more to the brothers.

“Probably,” Raph shrugs. “Have you? Killed someone?”

“I’ve had to. Only once, when - when I got cornered. It was bad, but it was either to kill him or get carried off in those white trucks, so. I chose the former.”

“I feel like I should be freaking over this, but with everything else I’ve heard and seen tonight I’m not that surprised. So. Moving on. We need to talk about meeting up again. This isn’t going to work,” Casey says. “The street’s are going to start having a curfew. Panic is spreading, the town’s never seen five murders.” 

“You have any other suggestions?” Raph quirks his eyebrow. Casey and April exchange glances, the former thinking furiously. 

“The cliffs.” Casey realizes. Getting on his knees, he points to their left, where in the near distance were, sure enough, cliffs. “Me n’ my sis used to go explore those. There’s caves, close to the bottom, and they’re accessible underwater. Found them by accident, actually. The only ones that really know about them are...well, me. And you guys, now.” 

“We’ll check it out on the way back,” Donnie says, feeling slightly relieved that they’d have a place to go that wasn’t so... _open_. The beach was nice, really, but hearing about April’s background plus their own previous knowledge from their father, humans were still so unpredictable. They’d really been lucky to find Casey and April, though, even if April wasn’t...completely human. 

They chat for another hour and a half, and Donnie’s predictions were correct. Casey and Raph got along like a house on fire, once they got past their original “tough-guy” shit. April looks better too, now having one less person to keep secrets from. Donnie, despite being usually reclusive, especially down in his home with the kingdom-merpeople, felt _better_. Maybe it’s because Casey and April were so different, some of their language and even their technology completely foreign and _advanced_ compared to the way of life Donnie was so used to. 

They hid it best they could, but Donnie could tell that his brothers were thrilled. They took to Casey like they took to April, laughing and joking with him so easily it was like he was just another brother. They don’t even want to leave, but Leo manages it eventually, realizing that they’ve been gone for such a long time that Splinter’s _bound_ to notice. They plan their next endeavor, watching from the shore until April and Casey disappear further into the human world before turning back into the ocean. “That was _fun_ ,” Mikey exclaims as they veer to the left to go explore Casey’s hideout. 

“When Casey got handsy with Raph? My favorite part of the entire night,” Leo snickers, and Raph grumbles and swims farther ahead while the rest of them laugh. “Seriously, dude. Thought you were straight.”

“ _None_ of us are straight, you know that! And why aren’t you going after Donnie? He likes both of them,” Raph shoots over his shoulder, and Mikey makes an “oooohhh” noise while Donnie flushes furiously.

“I do _not_ ,” Donnie retorts, flashing his violet tail furiously. “‘Sides, none of us have a chance with either of them. Casey and April are dating, remember?” 

“Eh, I don’t know. They don’t seem too concerned with the rules of dating, y’know? They seem kinda...off the walls, both of em’,” Mikey observes. “In a good way, definitely! Just...I wouldn’t be surprised if they were poly.” 

“How can you just know that about somebody?” Donnie asks, and Mikey shrugs. 

“Educated guess? Wait. Fuck. I forgot to ask them before they left if they could bring more pizza next time we meet up! _Fuckkkkkkkkkk,_ ” Mikey groans, burying his face into his hands as he swims. “This is the worst day _everrrrrr_ -

His brothers roll their eyes. “We’re here,” Raph says, running his hand over the jagged rock cliffs that stretched down beneath the waves. “I really hope Casey was right about this place.”

-

“So, Donnie.” April starts, and Casey laughs.

“Yes, Donnie,” he confirms. “Did you see the way he -

“Laughs? _Yes_ ,” April interrupts, flushing. “Listen, I thought it was Raph for a second, and I got worried. Not because I don’t find Raph attractive or whatever, it’s just - Donnie’s so sweet, and. God, he’s just. _Fuck_.”

“Raph...he’s hot, seriously, hotheaded guys are usually my shit. I’m not kidding. But...fuck. _Donnie_ ,” Casey gestures expansively, and April nods vigorously. “I...no. No, I do not have a crush on a guy after only one day of meeting him, shut _uppp_ \- 

“No, me too! Fuck, we’re hopeless, aren’t we?” April moves the shell to her other hand and hesitates. Before she loses her nerve she grabs his hand. “I need to apologize. About everything, I know I did it on the beach, but I’m serious. I don’t want my past to come between us. Not anymore. I love you, Casey. You know that,” she stumbles through her words sheepishly, but Casey cuts her rambling off by angling her head up and pressing a kiss to her lips. Her heart beats in her throat as he pulls away, and she wants to say so many things at once but he doesn’t let her.

“You did what you thought was right. You just put everyone first, no matter what, and it’s such an amazing thing about you, I just...don’t want you to do that anymore. Let me _help_ you, okay? I’m not letting your Dad move you. I’ll fight him and the entire Kraang tooth and nail before I ever let that happen,” Casey says seriously, and April remembers why she fell in love with him in the first place. He could be such a prick sometimes, but underneath all that false bravado and cheesy jock he was the most raw, vulnerable person April had ever known. “I love you, too. I should have tried to understand, and - 

“Stop. Don’t, okay? From now on there’s no more secrets between us. No matter how crazy our life gets, it’s us against the world. Well…us and the brothers,” April wiggles her eyebrows and squeezes their conjoined hands tighter. Casey laughs again, tugging her closer. 

“That’s something I can agree with,” Casey acknowledges her request, pressing another kiss to her lips. “I _was_ serious about my Dad n’ Sam being busy tonight, though. Wanna come back to my place?”

“For you, anything.” April agrees.

-

“Well, it’s spacey,” Donnie ticks off on his fingers, scanning the cave. “Definitely big enough for the six of us. A way for us to get in, that’s also great. Out of sight from anyone else unless we were followed. I think it’s perfect.”

“I love it! We can decorate it, too, I’ll bring things from home,” Mikey grins, tracing the smooth black rocks with his fingers. “I’m…” he tries to talk around a yawn. “Tired, wow.” 

“Yeah, boys, let’s go home. Hopefully Splinter’s still sleeping,” Leo rubs his arms nervously, dreads free-falling down his shoulders since they weren’t in the water. 

“Oh, he’s definitely noticed. Hopefully he doesn’t think we’re dead,” Raph dives back under, and they follow as he leads the way out of the cave. Putting on speed, they swim back to the kingdom, coming to a stop as they approach the outer underwater city walls. 

“We’ve gotta be careful, and that means _no_ messing around, you two,” Leo shoots his youngest brothers a look, which they both return with a deadpan expression. “Time it right. If the guards catch us Dad’ll have our tails for sure.”

“Yeah yeah, come on. Mikey’s gonna fall asleep out _here_ if we don’t get back.” Raph grumbles as Leo begins to push through the seaweed, across the unsteady rocks and through a hole in the kingdom walls that Donnie _might_ have maybe dislodged. Maybe on purpose. From there it's easy, watching the guard’s swimming patterns and avoiding them by slipping down the abandoned side streets. The brothers can’t believe their luck when they make it home unscathed, swimming through their bedroom window and -

“Where have you four _been_?” Catches them off guard, and Mikey _screams_ , throws the nearest thing - a pick, towards the figure in the doorway that spoke. Splinter catches the object easily and flings it to the ground, entering their bedroom with a disapproving expression. It’s silent for a beat before he continues, crossing his arms across his chest. “Well?”

“Oh, um, Father! Hi,” Leo scuffs his tail against their bedroom floor. “We just...went on a swim.”

“A three hour swim?” Splinter repeats incredulously. “Please, do tell me where you went that had me so _worried_ \- 

The brothers exchange looks, wondering what to say. Couldn’t lie, Splinter would see through them in a second, but could they really tell him the truth? “We...went exploring,” Donnie reveals slowly, watching Splinter’s body language carefully. 

“Don’t tell me you four ventured to the surface,” Splinter sighs, brown tail flicking in agitation when no one bothers to deny his claim. “Come, I need to tell you something I...probably should have, a long time ago.”

They follow him out down the hallway and into what passes for their living room, curling up on the warm floor next to each other, gazing up at their adopted father. He paces back and forth across the room, clearly debating whether to really confess what he’d pulled them out here to reveal, before finally making up his mind and coming to a stop in front of the four. “I haven’t been completely truthful about my past. About where I come from.”

“You told us you were originally from the Northern Kingdom, and you came here. After an accident,” Donnie recalls.

Splinter nods slowly. “That, my sons, is all true. But...before that. Before the accident. I was…” Splinter pauses, bracing himself, meeting their wide eyes with a steely look. “I was a human.” 

“You were a _what_ now?” Raph repeats, and their mouths are on the fucking _floor_ . The brothers gape up at Splinter, shock rendering them speechless, and Splinter nods gravely. “What - _how_ -

“I was foolish enough to seek her out,” Splinter begins, settling down on the floor. “I was tired of my life as a human. I wanted something else, and after I heard the legends in the human towns to the North and sought her out to change things up. For a price, of course. Chaos never does anything without requiring something in return.”

“Chaos...you don’t mean? The _witch_?” Mikey gasps, and Splinter nods again. “Oh, Dad, you didn’t - 

“But I did, Michelangelo. Chaos turned me into this,” Splinter gestures down to his tail. “And I left my human life without a trace. After heavy consideration, I joined the kingdom to the North, and I met my wonderful Tang Shen. And I had a wonderful daughter, Miwa. They were worth any curse, I believed. Any curse at all.”

A daughter. Splinter had had a _daughter_. 

“The curse came when I wasn’t expecting it. Oroku Saki. My friend, my closest friend. My _brother_ , someone I considered so close to me I wasn’t expecting the cascading jealousy. Tang Shen and Miwa, they perished because of my mistake - because of my foolishness to seek out a life that _did not belong to me_ . Do you understand, my sons? Why me, why _we,_ as merpeople, are so insistent on staying away from humans? We aren’t meant to -

But Donnie can’t listen to this any longer. “So...we’re supposed to stay down here forever? Hidden from the rest of the world because they _might_ be a threat? Dad, you don’t understand, we - we don’t want to be humans. But they - humans, they aren’t _all_ bad, they - 

“Are dangerous, they are _unpredictable_ , they will take one look at you and focus on how it will benefit themselves! They will do anything to _study_ you! They would take you _apart_ \- 

“We _met_ humans! Two of them!” Raph breaks in, swallowing down his shock to take part in the conversation. “They’re a bit weird, honestly, but they’re _good_ , they - they cared, about us, about keeping us hidden, about keeping us a secret - 

Splinter apparently didn’t hear a word after ‘humans’. He holds a hand to his chest, looking scandalized. His voice is weak when he continues. “You - you _met_ \- 

“We did,” Leo confirms, exchanging a panicked look with Donnie. Splinter was not taking this well. “But listen, Dad, they’re not _bad_ \- 

“You are not to see these humans again, do I make myself absolutely clear?” Splinter thunders, drawing himself up to his full height and towering over his sons. “You are putting our entire existence in _danger_ -

“No! That’s not true! Papa, I _promise_ you, they’re good people! April and Casey are our ages, even! They don’t wanna hurt us, or expose us, or _anything_! You can’t keep us from them, you _can’t_! We’re seventeen years old, and - 

“And I will not lose any more children! I refuse to let this happen again, do you understand?” Splinter roars, cutting Mikey off. “From this moment on - you. You’re all grounded until I say otherwise. Get out of my sight,” he spits, dismissing them, turning away from their crushed expressions. “And if I catch any of you going to the surface again…” Splinter doesn’t have to finish his sentence for them to understand what he was implying. 

Furious, Donnie swims back to their room, the others on his tail. Once they’re out of earshot of their father Donnie immediately goes on a relentless tirade. “We’re nearly _adults_ , how dare he ground us? Just because his own life got fucked up because of his own mistakes doesn’t mean that we’re gonna follow in his footsteps - 

“Shh, Donnie, calm down, it’s okay,” Mikey rubs his back, but Donnie’s miserable, now, as well as angry. 

“We aren’t allowed to see April or Casey _ever_ again, ‘Angelo,” Donnie whispers, and Mikey makes a sympathetic noise. “We’re just...stuck down here. Like we always have been.”

“No, we aren’t. Fuck being grounded, we know April and Casey aren’t gonna expose us. They wouldn’t. Casey even came up with the cliff-hideout-idea to _avoid_ us getting captured! Maybe humans are complete tools, but _they_ certainly aren’t,” Raph growls, clenching his fists. “If they wanted to expose us, they would have done it already.”

Mikey sighs. “Exactly, so why doesn’t he - 

“It’s control. He wants to keep his control over us,” Raph states bitterly.

“Oh, come on, he’s not _that_ twisted,” Donnie protests.

“Are you three done complaining yet? I have a plan,” Leo says, and the others look to him, fury abated for the moment being. “Well...not exactly a plan. We just continue to sneak out. Without him knowing.”

“How are we gonna do that?” Raph snorts. “Dad’s gonna be watching us, we won’t get far.”

“Then we throw him off the trail,” Donnie amends. “Say we’ve dropped the entire human idea entirely.” 

“This is gonna be so much _work_ ,” Mikey complains, flopping back down on his shell. “Seriously. Sometimes I wish we could just leave the kingdom completely.”

“Where would we go?” Donnie flops down next to him, curling up besides his youngest. “If we left the kingdom we’d have no protection, no home - 

“But we’d be free,” Mikey rebuttals immediately. “No more ‘if you get caught going to the surface’ you’d die, no more rules or regulations or sneaking around, we’d...be free, y’know? We could do anything, go anywhere we wanted.”

“And what about Dad? He’s being infuriating right now, but he’s just trying to protect us,” Leo takes a seat on the floor, by Mikey’s slowly twitching orange scales. “We couldn’t just leave him.”

“So, what, we’d stay here for the rest of our lives? Under his rule? Donnie said it himself, we’re turning eighteen this year! That makes us _adults_ , at least in the human world. I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life like this, being trapped in this city under a king I could give two shits about. I’d rather be out in the real sea, wouldn’t you?” Raph starts taking his gear off, throwing his sais in the direction of his shell and watching it float down. “Hell, I’d even want to be a human. Seek out this Chaos person and have her switch us herself. April and Casey sound like they have it way better.”

“Shh, don’t say that,” Leo scolds him halfheartedly. “Remember Dad’s story? He lost his wife and _child_ because of that curse Chaos put on him - 

“How is he so sure that Chaos was the one who did that? He’s just assuming that she did that to him, honestly. Maybe we could - 

“No, Raph.” Leo’s firm in his response, but it’s not as stern as he wants to be as he has to work his words around a yawn. “Even if Dad wasn’t sure what killed his...other family, there’s the myths, remember? We can’t _trust_ her.” 

“She’s the only one in the entire sea that could potentially fix our problems, though,” Donnie points out, yawning too. Both his and Mikey’s eyes are slowly starting to droop, but they struggle to stay awake and follow the conversation. “Maybe, if we became human, our lives would be…better...”

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one out of all of us,” Leo reaches upwards and chafes Donnie’s bronze skin lightly. “You know we couldn’t do that.”

“Hmm, yeah, but it’s fun to think about,” Is Donnie’s response, curling tighter around Mikey, who’s curly hair brushes against Donnie’s face. Mikey mumbles something unintelligible but doesn’t protest. Smiling fondly up at them, Leo grabs Raph by the wrist and pulls him down, so they’re sitting together at the bottom of Mikey’s shell. 

Raph doesn’t even protest as Leo leans against him, using his shoulder as a makeshift pillow. He tugs on one of Leo’s dreads gently before tilting his neck so Leo could get comfortable. “Night, guys,” Leo offers the silence of the room, and the hums he gets back are comfort enough to put him to sleep, even with all that’s happened that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soz this one is kinda short but i'm still fleshing out the story uhmm ill update this one again soon


End file.
